Build A Longer Table

Luke 13:1-9

At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.”

Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”

They told Jesus about some Galileans whose “blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices”. Pilate had slaughtered worshipers in the midst of their worship and so the people wondered, does God punish sin that way? That isn’t just a 2000 year old question, is it? Mother Emmanuel Church in Charleston. The Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. The mosques in New Zealand. That’s a “today” question too! Jesus tells them… and us, NO! God does NOT work that way! And not with collapsing buildings, hurricanes, flooding, tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanoes, plane crashes or anything else either! God does NOT work that way!  

That word “sin” carries a ton of baggage with it, and apparently sin, and the consequences of sin have been misunderstood... well, basically forever.  Here, Jesus is talking more about capital “S” sin, otherwise known as our very human condition of being broken.  For me, that root brokenness seems to always boils down to “fear.”  Fear is always the gross, crusty, toxic mess left at the bottom when you boil off  all of humanity’s creative “lower case” sins... things like anger, hate, greed, selfishness, violence and all the rest.  Jesus was less interested in those “lower case” sins here and more interested in healing the root human “capital S” sin of brokenness.  Jesus came so that we no longer had to walk only a path out of brokenness, but could instead know and walk the path God created us to walk... a path toward abundant life.  

God did not create us to walk this life in fear.  We were created to walk a path that leads to abundant life... a life filled with meaning and purpose and dignity!  Jesus told the people then, and tells us today, that when we keep walking a path that begins out of our brokenness... the path of fear... it may feel familiar, but it’s filled with pain.  The world, our culture, the neighbor kids, TV preachers, the devil... they all might insist that path, the path away from fear, is the only one there is... but Jesus came to insist, “NO, no it’s not” and put us on a path toward life!  That “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” path... that “might makes right” path... that is a path that leads only to pain, and God did not love us into being, only to live our lives in brokenness and pain.

The horrific and tragic deaths that happened in Jesus’ time were not caused by a God punishing sinners. The horrific and tragic deaths that happen in OUR world and in our time are not caused by a God punishing sinners either! But in Jesus’ time AND in ours, the reality remains... human brokenness... capital “S” sin... living out of  fear... all of that leads to pain and eventually to death. We see that all too often. Anger, hatred and violence, all born out of fear... fear of not being in control, not being first… THAT is the sin that led to the death of worshipers in Jesus’ time and fear is what leads to the white supremacy that leads to the slaughter of worshipers in our time too.  It’s a pain we walk into, not a pain God inflicts upon us.  So, what’s a broken human to do?

Jesus answers that question with a parable. A vineyard owner plants a fig tree counting on it to make her some figs.  God’s the vineyard owner and we’re the trees... we’ve been planted to bear fruit... to live!  We’ve been planted to reach out to our neighbors, care for the other... mourn with our community after a tragedy... stand up against hatred, selfishness, lusting after obscene amounts of money and power, white supremacy, racism, sexism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and all the rest.  THAT’S what we’ve been planted for, but speaking for myself... THIS particular bald fig tree is full of figgy brokenness.  Perhaps you can relate to some of that.  Bearing fruit is hard.  My neighbors are all too often mean and cruel and ignore science! And so... I just don’t make the fruit I was planted to make.  

But here’s the thing... that may not be very good, but it’s about the best I can do on my own... living out of my figgy brokenness!  And here’s a secret, NONE of us trees can do any better!  We need a gardener! That’s Jesus, by the way... to give us more time, to dig around us and pile on the manure with grace filled abundance.  Then, because that was first done for us, God calls us to get out there and make the fruit God created us to make!  To do the same for others that the gardener has first done for us!  Giving our neighbors... even THOSE neighbors... more time than we are inclined to give them… digging deeper in those relationships than we are inclined to go… AND piling on more of our precious resources than we think we able to share.  

And these days I am more and more convinced that talk isn’t enough.  We need to SHOW the world what that looks like. We can’t just talk about the Promised Land... we need to show them what the Promised Land looks like… not just talk about the Kingdom of God but SHOW them and give out tons of free samples of the fruit that grows there... the fruits of compassion, love and joy.  We must SHOW the world that longer tables are better than higher fences. We must SHOW the world the steps onto a path of love, compassion and peace… so they can SEE where to put one foot and then another and another.  We need to SHOW them that it’s possible to walk a path that doesn’t lead over the edge of a cliff. 

God doesn’t zap sinners from on high.  But a path walked out of fear leads inevitably through terrible places filled with hatred, bigotry and violence and if we stick to that path long enough, it eventually ends at the edge of a cliff where gravity is always turned on.  God’s desire for us is to walk a path toward abundant life and not death.  God desires that so much, God sent Jesus, God’s Son to put us on that path toward life.  May we SEE the path we’ve been loving put on by the Gardener and then boldly show a hurting world what it looks like when a community of regular people, all filled with normal, human brokenness, but lovingly cared for by that Divine gardener, walks together, not in fear away from death, but joyfully in faith on a path toward abundant life instead!  Amen.

Us Chickens

Luke 13:31-35

At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” He said to them, “Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.’ Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

Every summer, my grandparents would move their family from the house in the “big city” of Escanaba, Michigan out to Camp for the summer. With new buzz cuts and a large box of .22 ammo for both my dad and his brother they were set for the summer. This was before helicopters, let alone helicopter parents, so there was a ton of unstructured time, but still, my grandparents had plenty of projects and chores to attempt to keep Ben and Bob busy and out of the most serious, life-threatening sorts of trouble... which in hindsight did work... but based on the stories, it was never a sure thing. One of those projects involved raising chickens and one summer that meant painting the chicken coop. My uncle Bob was sent out to start the project while my dad finished up something inside. Before long however a giant commotion was heard coming from the direction of the chicken coop and as my dad and grandma looked out the window, they saw Bob chasing the chickens around the yard with a paintbrush full of green paint, painting not the chicken COOP but the chickens… it was a lovely shade of green as the story tells.

Chickens, it turns out have the reputation of taking a coat of paint well… but not cheerfully. A chicken’s reputation does NOT, however, usually include being an animal of great power and might. But here we have the power and might of God, made flesh in Jesus Christ, living in the world… like a chicken! Jesus isn’t acting like a lion, intimidating the countryside with a mighty roar and razor sharp claws. Jesus isn’t describing himself as an eagle, soaring high above the earth with piercing vision. No, Jesus identifies himself with the animal most likely to be painted green by my Uncle Bob on a summer day in the late 1940’s… a chicken.

Jesus… the Christ… the Son of God… Savior of Creation… is… a chicken? It’s not where you might have expected Jesus to go when he was picking an animal avatar for himself. Chickens are not the most majestic creatures.  Most do not sport particularly colorful plumage. They are neither strong and mighty nor sleek and stealthy. They don’t have a soaring wingspan or powerful claws… they are…. well… chickens. But leave it to Jesus to identify with the underdog. Born to a poor, unwed mother, he ate and spent his time with social outcasts and religious rejects. He constantly healed and ministered to the people that society wouldn’t even look at, let alone touch. Jesus never hung out with the popular or the powerful but, like the hen, he was faithful... even to death, to those whom God put in his care.  

The Pharisees who came to scare Jesus away from his mission with a bogus death threat from Herod were trying to expose Jesus as a fraud. They figured with a death threat from the King, Jesus would turn and run, rather than take the chance of coming face to face with that sneaky fox-like King Herod and his deadly set of razor sharp teeth, otherwise known as the Roman army. But Jesus called them on their bluff and told them he would leave, but only when it was time and not a moment sooner. Jesus knew THIS threat was a bluff. He also knew, however, that if he kept to his calling… walking toward Jerusalem, healing people, teaching crowds, casting out demons and proclaiming a VERY different Kingdom than the kingdom of Caesar, the threat would eventually become all too real.

Jesus deeply desired that all of God’s people, and indeed all of creation would come to him to be cared for, and just like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings for safety, Jesus wanted to gather all of creation into the peace, safety and justice of the Kingdom of God. Like that hen though, Jesus had no real defense. What he did have was an incredible willingness to sacrifice himself for the sake of the people. When a fox comes into the barnyard, a mother hen covers her chicks and bares her breast to the fox, enticing the fox to take her and leave her chicks alone. She can’t fight. All she can do is die for her chicks. Jesus too, we’ll see later, would not take the path that would lead him to fight. He would not return violence for violence. He would only offer himself to be killed, so that God’s children might live.  

The Good News for us is that each and every one of us are one of God’s little chicks! The fox of darkness, pain, meaninglessness and despair has already made it’s way into the human chicken coop and in response, Jesus has already gathered all of us and all of creation under his wings and sacrificed himself to make sure we all have life and not just a get-by life, but an abundant life, filled with meaning, purpose and hope.  

The question for us little chicks is not IF we have been given this gift of abundant life, but rather HOW will we now live into the gift of abundant life we’ve each been given through this sacrifice? We are alive! Even though, by all the laws of nature, we should have been eaten, digested, and left in a pile of fox poo long ago! God’s hope for us, and our calling by the Holy Spirit, is that by knowing and understanding that we have been saved from the sneaky, sly, fox of sin and death; we might live our lives from here on out, thanking God for the gift we have been given by passing God’s love… the love that first gathered us under those wings, to everyone around us. 

That’s the kind of life you and I have been called to. That’s the kind of life we have been saved FOR! That is the kind of life that would fill our Divine Mother Hen with the greatest amount of pride and joy a Divine Mother Hen could ever have!  

May each of us live more deeply into the gift of life we have been given… joyfully, abundantly, and thankfully… and may we do that TOGETHER as the coop of chickens known as the people of Christ Trinity church! And may we share that love of God which first saved us… with just the same sort of reckless abandon as Jesus first had for us.  Amen.

A Plague of Locusts!

Luke 4:1-13

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’” Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, “To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’” Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.

Baptism, is our entry into Christ… into the Body of Christ and the Body of Christ is another name for what we call the Church. That’s one of the reasons our Baptismal font is way back there… because way back there, it’s by the entrance of our Church! Baptism isn’t a destination, but rather, the very beginning of a life long journey.  Because of that, the Church in its ancient wisdom, thought that before a person set out on that sort of life-long journey it would be smart to take some time to help them get ready. How much time? Well, the PERFECT amount of time of course! And that… in Biblical figuring means FORTY. Forty days and nights for Noah and the flood. Forty years for the people of Israel going from Egypt to the Promised Land. Forty days of fasting before Moses received the ten commandments. Forty days for Jesus in the wilderness and Forty days for the season of Lent. Forty is Biblical shorthand for the time God takes to prepare something amazing! And because this is God’s time we’re talking about, it hardly ever ends up being exactly forty by our human ways of counting. That’s why the Season of Lent, is forty days long… as long as you don’t count the Sundays! 

So Baptism is where we all start.  In the water washing of Baptism, God promises us abundant life... a life filled with purpose and meaning and also salvation... a promise that this abundant life God gives us as a gift goes on beyond time itself. Baptism, you see, is God’s work, not ours, so it goes well beyond our ability to fully comprehend.  That’s why we talk about it in so many different ways, trying to get a handle on something that is way too big for us to ever fully grasp.  It’s God giving us a Cleansing Bath, it’s a New Birth, it’s citizenship in God’s Kingdom, it’s being clothed in Christ, it’s being brought Out of Chaos and Death, it is our Adoption as a Child of God, it is God grafting us into Christ and joining us with Christ’s death and resurrection. 

Our second lesson today says we “believe with the heart” and “confess with the mouth.” Notice, it doesn’t say “believe with our heads.” That’s because believing is not so much a decision we make in our heads as it is a step by step journey following the One we have come to love, because we have come to realize that One we love has been loving us all along! At the beginning of the service today we recognized how Peter has begun noticing God’s love working in his life and we welcomed him to join us as a community... a community doing our best to “believe with our hearts” just like him.  In just a moment, we’ll all have the opportunity to bless him and equip him for this forty day journey… Together, we’ll give him the sign of the cross on his eyes, ears, lips, heart, shoulders, hands and feet so that he knows that all of us are walking with every part of him on this journey… both his journey through Lent and his journey through all of life! At the Great Easter Vigil, we’ll all continue with him on this journey and together we’ll “confess with our mouths” and then, in some mysterious way, God will grab hold of him with Water and with God’s Word, binding him together with all of us... a part of the Body of Christ and promise to never let him go, no matter what, from then, to the end of time and to beyond time itself!  

Now all of that might make you think that after you’re Baptized every day will be magically filled only with unicorns, gumdrops and rainbows!  But since Jesus himself was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit after his Baptism, only to run into the Devil and all those temptations, it’s pretty much a sure thing that we’re in for the same.  What Jesus ran into after his Baptism was not a question about whether or not he was God’s Child. That was a done deal and even the Devil agreed with that!  What he ran into, were questions about HOW he was going to be God’s Son. Since in our Baptisms we’ve are adopted as Children of God, the questions Jesus faced are inevitably the questions we face in our wilderness times too.

The first question: Bread for me, myself and I, or bread for US, OURSELVES AND WE? Jesus was hungry and we all get hungry!  The question is will we use the gifts we’ve been given to satisfy me, myself and I, or will we use what God has given us for US, OURSELVES and WE?  Jesus chose not to make bread in the wilderness then, but held off and instead made fish sandwiches for thousands a little later!  

The second question: Arm muscles or heart muscles? Jesus was sent by God to make things right in the world, and so are we!  But HOW do we do that? Do we use the world’s ways of violence, intimidation and manipulation… OR do we do like Jesus did and instead use the power of self-sacrificial LOVE to transform the world to work the way God wants it to work?

The third question: Cheat death or defeat death? Jesus had the power to get the angels to save him after jumping off a tower and cheating death in a spectacular way. That would have brought him millions of adoring fans!  Instead he chose not to Cheat Death, but DEFEAT death, once and for all for all of creation through his own death and resurrection.  Will we avoid the hard things in life or will we dare to go through them, trusting God’s promise of new life on the other side?

Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to begin his forty day journey.   You and me, along with Peter are being led by that same Holy Spirit into our shared forty day journey through the wilderness of Lent. We too will wrestle with those same old temptations… Will we live for others or will we live for ourselves? Will we work in the world by "might makes right” or by self-giving love? Will we do everything to avoid what we fear, or will we dive deeply through it, toward the promise of light and life?  

I feel incredibly thankful that Peter has asked us... this beautiful gathering of the Body of Christ... to journey with him this Lent.  I hope that you too can see in these forty days, the blessing and the great honor it is to walk with one another, sharing with each other the joys and the difficulties of this season of life as we walk together toward the Great Easter Vigil and Peter’s Baptism. Peter, thank you for the trust you have placed in all of us and the incredible gift you’ve given us by allowing us to share your journey with you. Come now and let us bless you for the journey we are all about to take together!  Amen.

With Fear and Slipping

Luke 9:28-36

Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah” —not knowing what he said. While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.

Eight days later, my wife took with her, our dog and me and led us to our long table to “talk".  I thought, “This is really bad.”  The dog was fine with it.  There, she became super serious, so before she could say anything I said, “Hey, it’s good you brought us here, because I’ve been thinking about building some birdhouses,” (not really knowing what I was saying.) And while I was still yammering, a voice came from the clouds and said, “Erik, this is your beloved, she is really quite… QUITE a bit smarter than you.  Shut up and listen to her.” 

You see, eight days before that I had driven to Augusta and when I left to come home, I started down this giant, steep hill.  The road was covered in that thick, not-quite-slush… not-quite-snow, sort of snotty, winter mess and as I applied the brakes, my very bald tires slipped and the anti-lock brakes did all they could but I still slid all the way down that hill. The GOOD news was that I stopped before I slid into Water Street. The REALLY good news is that I stopped before going into the stuff beyond that for which that street is named! The bad news was I needed new tires and that filled me with great fear. 

Now, I don’t have a weird new-tire phobia.  What I fear is spending money.  I wanted to take a couple of months to squirrel the money away and pay with cash.  But that snow was just the pre-blizzard, which was going to be followed by the REAL blizzard, which was then going to be followed by a post-blizzard, and Kelly said, “I know you fear putting tires on a credit card.  I know spending $500 will feel like death to you. But I also know your fear won’t magically go away even if I tell you not to be afraid.  So, invite your fear into the car with you, tell it to buckle up, and the two of you GO… get new tires on your car TODAY... because new tires means life.”  So, my fear and I got into my car, buckled up and we went and got new tires, because God was right… she's quite…QUITE a bit smarter than I am.  

The thing that happened eight days before today’s lesson is that Jesus told the disciples he needed to go to Jerusalem, where he would suffer and die and be raised from the dead. The disciples had no idea what he meant by being raised from the dead but they were all TOO clear on what suffering and death was! They, very understandably, had a real fear of going to Jerusalem.  But in the middle of the disciple’s yammering, God spoke and said, “Disciples listen, this is my Son, my Chosen, he is quite… QUITE a bit smarter than you, so shut up and listen to him.” With that they shut up, loaded themselves… and all their fears… on the disciple-bus and drove down the mountain and on to Jerusalem.  Because in that encounter… even though they still couldn’t wrap their minds fully around it, and even though they were still scared… they knew that somehow going down that mountain following Jesus toward suffering and death was somehow ALSO the path Jesus was leading them down toward abundant life.  

Here’s the second most important thing about these stories… Kelly knew that telling me not to be afraid wouldn’t magically take away my fear.  Jesus telling the disciples not to be afraid didn’t magically take away their fear either. But you and I are called to FAITHFULNESS… NOT FEARLESSNESS.  Faithfulness is taking your fear, inviting it onto the bus with you and driving on down the mountain toward new life, even with fear riding shotgun and incessantly changing the radio stations the whole way down.  

If we wait to be fearless BEFORE we make a step toward the Abundant Life God created us to live, we'll never even take the first step.  Cornel West says it this way, “To be a Christian is to live dangerously, honestly, freely - to step, in the name of love, as if you may land on nothing. Yet to keep on stepping… because “the something” that sustains you… (is something) no empire can give you… and no empire can take away.” To his “dangerously, honestly and freely”… I’d add fearfully. We as Christians are not called to wait for safety or comfort. We as Christians are not called to wait for fearlessness. We as Christians are called to take a step… just one little step in faith and in self giving love… then another… and then another… on down the mountain and out into the world.  One tiny, seemingly insignificant little step toward loving God and loving neighbor... one step… after another, toward LIFE.

All of that is true. But true doesn’t make it easy. Fear is still very real and, by it’s nature, fear is REALLY scary! But here’s the part of this lesson that I think is MOST important for us today. Notice HOW those disciples came down that mountain. They came down that mountain and walked into the scary world following Jesus… TOGETHER. TOGETHER... that’s how God created us to do this thing called life!

Following Jesus. Walking the Jesus Way. Living life in the Jesus Way of living… Loving God. Loving Neighbor. Giving of self. Caring for the lost, last and least of our world. We’re called to ALL of that… BUT NEVER… are we called to walk ALONE! This is the stuff us fear-filled humans can only do when we do it TOGETHER! Today we officially welcome new members to join us hiking down the mountain and out into life with us TOGETHER. It is an incredible gift! To us AND, I hope, to them.  Because we need each other if we’re going to keep stepping out in love and putting one foot in front of the other down the mountain and out into the world. We ALL need others who in our moments of fear are “quite a bit smarter” than us to help us invite our fear on the bus and keep driving. We ALL need others, to remind us that every step taken in love lands on “that something”, even when that next step is anything but clear. We ALL need each other, to remind us that in this life, there’s a Promised Land on the other side of EVERY wilderness and there’s an Easter on the other side of EVERY Good Friday. May we TOGETHER… TOGETHER as the Body of Christ that we call Christ Trinity Church, dangerously, honestly, fearfully and freely, keep on stepping out, each and every day, in the name of love. Amen.